Japanese counting in karate
In most Karate styles, techniques are performed ten times, and it is common use in dojos all over the world to count in Japanese. Just like the bowing, counting in Japanese is a characteristic of Karate.
As a student, you should learn to count in Japanese out loud too, because the time will come when you are giving commands to fellow students (or because you have become a Karate instructor yourself), so you better know how to count in the way Sensei does. Students are familiar to his type of counting in Japanese and will be less startled or giggly if they hear the commands in a familiar way.
Learn Counting in Japanese Ichi, Ni, San… from 1 to 100
Counting and demonstrating
As an instructor, you will find that Japanese counting, performing a technique, and watching your students at the same time is quite demanding and can get you puffed and out of breath in no time.
Important points here: Do the techniques slowly, and count BEFORE you do the techniques. Your students are conditioned to do the technique when they hear the command. Thus, you must not start yourself with your own technique until you have completed the command.
Doing a repetition of 10 techniques is not a race against the clock. You won’t win a medal for rushing through it quickly. The slower you do it, the more people can concentrate on doing each individual technique with power, speed and precision. THAT is what you want to teach them, not to have them rush through it, leaving you breathless in the process.
Emily said:
um i just started to take Acito and i love it but on this site you dont really tell how to count to ten in japanese but whatever i know how to count t […] more
Genelle said:
I love this site my 2 children take karate and i’m so fascinated with the whole exeprience. Your site tells me everything i need to know and more. I […] more
Becky said:
Your site has really helped me, we do have a local tai-kwan-do in our town, but I dont’ need to learn everything there is. Like I’m afraid I waited wa […] more
Mike said:
Counting in karate is a very effective tool in teaching less-experienced students patience. In addition, it also allows the sensei to view every stude […] more
james strauch said:
I use counting in lessons not only to break up kata but also to teach basics. I find by breaking up kata it gives students the chance to get every […] more
Victoria said:
I have just come apon this wonderous site and realized something extremely odd. That odd something is that there are more people that say 7 as shichi […] more
Kaito said:
Actual spelling is hyaku not hiyaku hya and hiya have entirely different pronunciations. They are written with the same characters, but are writte […] more
maddie alberga said:
hey cool site im starting karate and the counting realy does help :)
Niniachan said:
We count all the time in class, up to fifty at times…our instructor has us count 1231, 1232, 1233, 1234, etc. so we do more than we are counting…t […] more
Diana said:
I’m impresed! In my first Karate lesson I learned so much things ohhhhhhh, I can’t tell how much things I learned!
Diana said:
Hey guys, sory that I didn’t tell you last time but I thank you, thank you,thank you!!!:)you helped me so much!
Jade said:
Hi, I do karate and have been for about 8 montsh now. about 3 months ago my karate teacher stopped doing karate but just 3 days ago we did our first t […] more
tom said:
Hi I’m a black belt and have been doing karate for 6 years but this web site does’nt really help you need to put on a bigger range of info.
Sempi Conor said:
this site doen’t tellu how to count in japanese. i do karate and am a sempi in it and i know how to count to 100. im going for black in oct and […] more
Kamikaze said:
Martial Arts rocks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BAAKO JOYCE said:
woooow your doing agreat thing
shendo goju-ryu said:
if you want to count to ten to japanese i will teach you. it goes ichi, ni, san shi, go, roku, nana, hachi, ku, jyu.